1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel salt compositions that can take the place of conventional salt or table salt. This invention is also concerned with functional salty-taste seasonings or condiments wherein the salt compositions are added to conventional seasonings.
2. Background Art
Salt or table salt as used hitherto includes, for example, purified salt produced by the ion exchange process as well as rock salt, natural salt manufactured by the solar evaporation process or salt pond process, and the like. The above-mentioned kinds of table salt all contain not less than 95 weight % of sodium chloride. It has long been pointed out that the Japanese foods, inclusive of soybean paste, soy sauce and pickles, are prepared with large quantities of salt.
Sodium chloride itself is in no way harmful or hazardous to the human body but rather supplies Na (sodium) and Cl (chlorine) that are requisite for maintenance of the physiological functions of the human body. As is well known, however, a serious problem of imbalance is often encountered in the intake between sodium and potassium in high-sodium but low-potassium diets, which imbalance has mainly been the cause of hypertension that is of grave concern in the diseases of adult people.
Consequently, it is strongly recommended to have a restricted intake of salt. But the poorly salt-seasoned dishes prepared with a reduced amount of salt do not taste good, thus diminishing one's appetite. For the purpose of reducing the salt intake, while maintaining a proper degree of salty taste, it has been proposed to use potassium chloride as a partial replacement for table salt. Nevertheless, potassium chloride possesses a particular bitterness, and when added to foods, it severely spoils and impairs their tastes. A variety of countermeasures are devised so as to eliminate the bitterness of potassium chloride: for example, the addition of calcium chloride or magnesium chloride was reported in the Japanese Patent Publication No. 15299/1985. Yet, all of them to date have turned out to be far from being satisfactory.